Albert Wimmer – Vienna, Austria
Authors
Citation
Hinge, v.154, 2008, pp. 88-90
Abstract
This studio has been operating for three decades across a field of programme types, from sports stadia to residential housing blocks, for private and public clients. Self-described as ‘duly obliged to respect the architectural tradition of classical modernity’, the work is undoubtedly within the rich tradition of middle-European modernism. In some of the simpler block projects (usually housing) this seems, within the current context, to hint at a nostalgia for Bauhausian aesthetic rigor; squint and we could be in the 1940s all over again. Is it merely exhaustion with recent trends in blob-and-shard histrionics, or patterns-on-steroids facade treatment, that make these buildings look so refreshingly clean and ‘honest’ right now? Who is to say. All we know is that the dry planning approach Wimmer takes to large projects, the logical parti’s and plan elaborations, and the obvious enjoyment of technical details in the buildings reads through loud and clear, posing a direct and potent challenge to form-making as spectator sport. Albert Wimmer may not be the loudest party in town, but as these works make clear, it has earned its longevity.
(1) Elf Zwei
(2) Casa Cascada
(3) Stadium Salzburg
(4) Aristide de Sousa Mendes Promenade
Description
Type
Article
Format
Date
2008
Language
en